*The Bronx River Alliance Assembly will take place on Tuesday, February 26, 6pm-8pm

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is proud to announce Process and Progress: Drew Manahan, Meta Local Collaborative & The Bronx River Alliance. This is the third in the series of five exhibitions that invites artists and architects to engage with systems of urban development in the Bronx and beyond. Process and Progress is presented in BRAC’s temporary gallery space in Mott Haven while our permanent facility in West Farms is undergoing renovation.

The exhibition series, Process and Progress: Engaging in Community Change, highlights the Bronx River Art Center’s development during a time of significant structural and cultural change in the borough. BRAC’s major building renovation project, now underway, is leading the way for more environmentally sustainable and technologically advanced designs within our local West Farms Community. At the same time, the surrounding area has become home to new and imminent urban development projects that will dramatically impact the built environment, social fabric, and cultural composition of our local community.

Process and Progress: Drew Manahan, Meta Local Collaborative & The Bronx River Alliance focuses on the past, the present and the future of the Bronx River.Architect Drew Manahan explores how the wilderness around the river has resurfaced within the South Bronx's urban environment through renderings and drawings and how this evolving ecology and the river is creating new ephemeral or transcendental experiences for the borough's inhabitants.

In partnership with the Bronx River Alliance, Meta Local Collaborative has curated a selection of photos, plans, maps, documents from the Alliance's archives. These images trace how spaces along the river have changed throughout the years, revisit past restoration and recreation plans, and consider the river's present state and plans for its future. In addition, Meta Local is showcasing work they are developing which focuses on public access to the Bronx River Greenway.

Artists and Partners:

Andrew Manahan is an Eagle Scout from Northwest Ohio who received his Bachelors of Science in Architecture from the University of Cincinnati and his Masters of Architecture from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. His vision is to create architectural and cultural policy through an opportunistic and proactive practice. He completed his first building just this past year through a mixture of contemporary and digital fabrication techniques and traditional woodwork and handcraft, featured in Metropolis magazine. Andrew has become increasingly interested in the reemergence of wilderness and nature in highly populated or recently vacated urban areas, and is interested in crafting a relationship between culture architecture and wilderness.

Meta Local Collaborative is the practice of Elizabeth Hamby and Hatuey Ramos Fermin. Their work investigates the dynamics of urban spaces, exploring the histories of buildings and neighborhoods, and tracing the flows of people, ideas and products. Combining documentary strategies with performance and fine art, they articulate concepts of origin, and the sense of place. Meta Local develops site-specific, participatory works that refer to the complexity of their community in the South Bronx and beyond. The artists observe, analyze, and dissect the social, cultural and economic structures of their neighborhood, as well as the design and organization of buildings and spaces, and use the information gathered to develop questions that serve as a foundation for their projects.

The Bronx River Alliance serves as a coordinated voice for the river and works in harmonious partnership to protect, improve and restore the Bronx River corridor so that it can be a healthy ecological, recreational, educational and economic resource for the communities through which the river flows.

Process and Progress is made possible by National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and The New York State Council on the Arts. Related education and public programs are supported, in part, by the José E. Serrano WCS-NOAA, Lower Bronx River Partnership Program.

The Bronx River Art Center expresses its appreciation for the support of The City of New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., New York City Council Majority Leader Joel Rivera, and members of the Council’s Bronx Delegation.

During our 2012/13 exhibition season we will share a gallery space with BronxArtSpace, an artist run gallery directed by Mitsu Hadeshi and Linda Cunningham. BRAC and BAS will present alternating months of programming over the course of the year. Please see their website for more information.

DIRECTIONS TO CENTER: By Train: Take #2 or #5 to West Farms Square/East Tremont. Walk one block east to Bronx Street. By Bus: Take #'s B9, 21, 36, 40, 42, or Q44 to East Tremont and Boston Road. By Car: Take Bruckner Expressway to Sheridan Expressway, and exit at East Tremont Ave. Turn left at the traffic light one block down onto East Tremont. Turn left after one block onto Bronx St. (Cross Bronx Expressway) towards Rosedale Ave, then exit. Turn left onto Rosedale Ave, then take a left onto Tremont Ave. Drive four blocks to West Farms Square.